Now I'm retired, but whenever I used to look for a survey mark and couldn't find it, I pretty much assumed it got plowed up, or lost when a road or development obliterated it.
Now, I am seeing the brass disks for sale on eBay, complete with the "$250 Fine or Imprisonment For Disturbing This Mark" clearly displayed.
For example, " http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Coast-Geodetic-Survey-Marker-Estate-Sale-Find-3-1-8-inches-W-Stone-/311074450313?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item486d7b6b89#ht_60wt_1011 ".
What an insult to the people who worked so hard to establish these marks.
Thank goodness USC&GS and others sometimes buried secondary marks. Maybe the
!@#$^&* thieves won't find them.
I am going to contact someone about this.
I agree with you completely, but it seems to be a problem that no one is too concerned about. If you contact the authorities they are unlikely to do much and if you contact the thieves, they'll probably laugh at you, or worse.
It is possible to buy replicas of some monuments at gift shops, etc. The one is your link is in such good shape that it may be one of those, but you see real ones for sale all the time.
I'd bet that is a souvenir shop reproduction. That isn't uncommon for a mountain peak, and the elevation and date are cast into the metal rather than stamped as a real one would be. I don't think selling replicas is a great idea - it would tend to encourage people to rip off the real thing.
I think it is this one: LT0688 NGS data sheet. The replica is probably using the NGVD29 elevation, although that isn't on the data sheet as superseded.
People were finding the real one, somewhat beat up, a year ago.
Geocaching logsLT0688
===============
You do see real ones on ebay from time to time. When they come to my attention, I always report the listing to ebay, picking some category of problem, with a note that it is illegal. Search the listing page for "Report".
Once you start looking on ebay, there are a lot of them. This one is stamped and looks weathered, although I don't know why the prongs on the shaft aren't spread as I'd expect them to be in a disk that had been set.
www.ebay.com/itm/231316425633
I tried the most directly descriptive category "Prohibited and restricted items"/ "illegal items and items encouraging illegal activity"/"Stolen Property". That gets a note saying reports of stolen property must come from law enforcement, and a form asking for my info and organization. Sigh.
So I used "Prohibited and restricted items"/"Government and police items"/"Other"
I have a collection from my days in construction when the monument would get wiped out. I called NGS about it. They said I could keep the Brass.
I work for a local council and we have to disturb/destroy them all the time. I always try to save them (and suggest that they design something different... which never works.) Some we file off the number, restamp with a new number and reset but we have many Brass Plaques as paper weights around the office. When we remove one, we always place a new one and give it an AHD (Australian Height Datum) RL. You tend to lose all the cadastral connections though, unless we had to do a truncation/easement for the road/drainage.
If people are removing them for the sake of selling them, when they're in no danger, then I 100% support your feelings on the matter.
If those for sale have been saved from destruction and someone is trying to make a little on the side, it's still a bit sad but not really a big deal for me.
It's a $200 fine in QLD, where I am, but up to $2000 in South Australia. I've never heard of anyone getting finned for it though. I'm not even sure what department in which states would have the authority to do so. Unlike Parking inspectors, we don't have any PSM inspectors...
I just asked the seller:
Q: Is this a real survey marker, or just a copy? Can you confirm it came from where it says it came from?
A: I don't think it's real. It is non-magnetic but I do not think it's brass. I paid $27 dollars for it.
I know of a two tidal benchmarks that are going to be destroyed. Dan Martin @ NGS would like them to document they have been destroyed. I have considered paper weights, but there really is no need to have one paper weight, let alone two.
It's a repro. The GEO-SITU company makes a lot of them. My sister gave me a re pro of the one that's set on Mt. Everest by the same company.
I also have a few that were destroyed during construction, etc. Use them as displays when we exhibit at some shows.
Don't see them get pinched here and generally are well respected by the public.
I was ticked off the other day when setting some control for Street works and knowing a State Mark was in the footpath in its own fancy cast iron box I showed the contractor and asked it be looked after.
It's gone!
I am doing a cadastral job nearby and had referenced it but!!
Couple of years ago another cadastral job. The owner (as often) said he knew where his boundaries were and "that star is the corner".
I knew full well what it was as it had a plaque with the State Mark number stamped on it.
I looked it up and it came from a place on opposite side of Island called Picannini Point.
He was Australian Aboriginal so answered question how it got to be where it was.
I have a collection of old brass discs and marks.
Once they have been allocated and disturbed (dug out) they can't be reused.
I found a triangulation station destroyed by a bulldozer. I reported it and our state NGS guy said to take pictures and send the monument disc back to them, which I did. The dozer operator ignored the sign marking the large ground level monument and gave the monument a damaging push that partially lifted the monument out of the ground and broke the top 18 or so inches off. Now the guy mows and neatly trims the grass around the broken remains and leaning warning sign. He can keep on doing that for a while.:-)
As of this morning, the Florida disk is no longer listed and the Alaska disk is still there. Different reviewer of complaints, different results, I suppose.
Somebody else should complain about the Alaskan one.